Moderators make and break pop culture panels

The Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) closed on Nov 17 with examples of how moderators can make or break panels.

- Charmaine Lim

The day started strong with Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me: A Swiftie's Guide To Confessional Poetry in The Arts House Chamber. Teenage moderator Czaana Saxena, 15, guided the panel with well-prepared and thought-provoking questions. Before the session began, she asked the mix of teens and adults to not only silence their phones - part of the scripted opening for all SWF sessions - but to also be mature and respectful of the panellists by not chatting while they were talking. Poets Tan Lixin, Laili Abdeen and Theophilus Kwek shared their thoughts on how American singer Taylor Swift's lyricism intersects with the ever-growing and changing form of confessional poetry. Laili said: "What I learnt a lot from Swift is that she gave a lot of ugly feelings artistic value. She wrote about guy